Ex tells court living with Ryan Giggs during lockdown was "hell"
Ryan Giggs's ex-girlfriend has told a jury living with him during the first Covid lockdown was "hell"
Last updated 11th Aug 2022
Ryan Giggs's ex-girlfriend has told a court living with the former Manchester Untied footballer during lockdown was "utter hell".
Kate Greville was asked why she moved into his home if she believed he had been a "serial and violent abuser".
She said: "It was a cycle of abuse that made me feel insecure.
"I kept going back, he kept promising the world."
Her voice broke as she told the jury: "He made me believe that he would not do it again and, stupidly, I went back. I am hugely ashamed of that, but I did."
Relationship with Giggs got "progressively worse" during lockdown, claims ex
Giggs, 48, denies using controlling and coercive behaviour against Ms Greville between August 2017 and November 2020, assaulting her, causing actual bodily harm, and the common assault of her younger sister.
Jurors at Manchester Crown Court heard that PR executive Ms Greville, 36, had described living with the defendant during the first Covid-19 lockdown from March 2020 as "utter hell".
The pair moved in together for the first time after Giggs asked her to live with him at his property in Worsley, Greater Manchester, she said.
On Thursday, Chris Daw QC, defending, continued his cross-examination of Ms Greville, asking her: "Could you have gone to your parents or someone else?"
Ms Greville replied: "Yes."
Mr Daw said: "Was one of the reasons you didn't because actually you wanted to spend time with Ryan in his rather larger house?"
The witness said: "I wanted to stay with Ryan, not because of his house but because we had just started the relationship again."
"I needed a plan to get away"- Greville
Earlier this week, Ms Greville told a jury that Giggs grabbed her by the shoulders and head-butted her in November 2020 after she confronted him about his serial cheating.
In the lead up to the alleged attack, she said she learned he had "full-on relationships" with eight women while they were together.
On Thursday, Mr Daw said to Ms Greville: "I suggest to you that decision (to leave him) was entirely based on that issue, that infidelity. It was nothing to do with coercion, violence, anything like that."
Ms Greville replied: "There's a lot of emails between me and him where I say a lot more things about the control and coercion and manipulation."
She said it was "incorrect" that her decision to leave Giggs was solely because "he was a cheat".
Mr Daw asked whether finding out Giggs was involved with other women made her decide she "needed to come up with a plan".
Ms Greville told the court: "I needed a plan to get away in secret so he couldn't find me, so he wouldn't harass me. And how to let him know how I had found all those things out."
Giggs denies all the charges and the trial continues.